In this task I will show some statistics and comments I’ve received on my final film.

To begin, I will show you the analytics I got off of youtube and the statistics they show. As you can see, in the last week my youtube video has been viewed 48 times and a total of 62 minutes. Since my video is approximately 2 minutes long, the statistics show that some people have not been watching it all the way through (but this could be for a variety of reasons, including the fact that I have watched it multiple times in snippets to analyse and continue working on tasks.)

In this analytic i got off of YouTube you can see that the people who’ve viewed my final film have been 79% from the United Kingdom and 21% from America. Unfortunately, YouTube cannot pick up the gender of unregistered users and therefore they have no data for that field, but I’ve gotten comments from both boys and girls aged 14-18 that can be seen below. You can also see from the bottom statistics that 84% of the views are external which probably means most people have watched it off my blog or off of Facebook when I posted it.

Here are some of the comments I received over Facebook messanger, good and bad, from my target audience.

For this task I tagged and annotated my video to explain how different aspects attracted my target audience member along with the typical viewer of a horror film. Here are screenshots of the annotations I created. The annotations are in the top left corner of each frame.

here is the link to my 2nd to final edit (where you can see the annotations as they relate to the specific scenes)

…and the link to my completely final edit.

(I chose to annotate my second to last title because I only made a few tweaks between the final and the 2nd to last. I also didn’t want to audience to be distracted or impaired by the annotations when watching my final film.)

“Create your perfect audience member, give them a background, a picture, a ‘tribe’ www.uktribes.com and www.findyourtribe.com, what music do they listen to, what TV do they watch, what films would they go and see? “

To fully understand the demographic of my audience, I created a picture of my ideal audience member. Through the website http://www.uktribes.com/ I determined that my perfect audience member would be the Vlogger/Blogger. These girls are typically very “hipster” and always are on the latest trends. The definition from Uk Tribes states that they “describe young people that are vlogging, blogging, tweeting and instagramming their lives, attitudes and values online; they aren’t creating culture and new social norms (bar those with 1M+ followers!) but are having a huge impact on youth culture today.”

I chose to create a short slideshow showing an analysis of popular Vloggers online versus the image of my “perfect” audience member at school.

I also created a short video showing my perfect audience member in her “daily life”– scrolling through Instagram and Tumblr, listening to music and what her daily outfit is.

Favorite things to do in her free time: sleep, eat, listen to music, watch movies on Netflix, putting on cozy clothes, see friends

Favorite social media: Snapchat

My perfect audience member would be one that is trendy and interested in social media and very “hipster”. This girl has to be slightly “edgy” or else they probably wouldn’t enjoy my film as much, but since there are aspects of romance, fashion and social media in my film that would draw her attention and make her want to watch it. A vlogger would be very interested in my film and probably write about it on social media as well as possibly copy some of the styles and get inspiration as well as relate to the lifestyle of Poppy, my main character.

Here is the prezi I made to describe my choice of logo and Production Company name, why production companies are important, how distribution works and how my film is attracting certain production companies.

I’ve created a 9 shot grid of the key parts of my film and I will be comparing these key parts to the 9 shot grid on (www.artofthetitle.com) for the thriller film Se7en.

here is the grid I made for my thriller/horror film, CAUGHT. These highlight the Title, Setting, Costumes, Camera work and Editing, Font, Narrative, Genre, Characters and Special effects I chose. Below, I will explain how my shots relate and challenge the conventions of typical horror and thriller movies.

*The Title of the Film: Here is the screenshot from how I chose to convey my title. In many thrillers/horrors, the title is an incredibly prominent detail of the opening sequence, and sets the scene for what the rest of the film will be like. I believe my title does exactly that, because in addition to the “eerie” looking background, I made the text large and red (a typical color associated with horror, murder, blood, mystery and thrillers) In comparison to the opening of Se7en, my title is larger and more forward, which I did on purpose to put emphasis on it and give the audience a significant hint of the genre and what was to come in the opening sequence (because the opening is split and has a juxtaposition between light and dark.) This also helped me transition from the night of the party to the morning, which was an editing technique I used to make my film flow better.

*The Setting: These screenshots from my 9 grid highlight the different settings that are presented throughout my film. It is not very typical of most title sequences in the horror/thriller genres for a few reasons. The first is because there are three completely different settings and lighting. I made the decision to change the setting and lighting multiple times and not conform completely throughout my whole film to the typical dark, eerie style of most films in my genre. I instead chose to juxtapose the dark and light to create a sense of suspense and keep the audience engaged the whole time. I also chose multiple different settings throughout the film: The party (night and day), the street, and the train station. I did this, even though its unlike the title sequence of Se7en which conforms to the same setting/lighting the entire time, because again I wanted to create a storyline that would keep the audience interested and not be repetitive.

*The costumes/Characters: This shot highlights the costume of the main character in my film. I shows the sunglasses, large jacket and sweater. This costume in some ways conforms to the genre of horror/thriller because its dark, muted and mysterious. It has the connotation of making the character look guilty and like she’s un pure and corrupted, which is what I wanted to achieve. The costume subconsciously makes the viewer feel as though the character did something wrong. (This contrasts with (Sarah) the other character’s white top, which makes her look pure and innocent, even if she’s acting guilty.) On the other hand, the costume does not conform the to typical outfit of the “guilty” character in most horror films because they are usually portrayed much more evilly, where are I wanted my character to look like a “typical teenage girl”instead of a known villain.

*The camera work and editing/Special FX: For this section of camera work and editing I’m going to highlight under each image how I created the effect and why it’s significant to my film.

Highlighting again on the title and the effect I used is important for two reasons. For one, the effect I used on this shot as well as the shot below I achieved by intentionally putting a filter over my camera and slightly making it out of focus. I did this because I wanted to create a sense of mystery and eeriness right at the beginning of my film to show some of the “norms” of the genre. Another significant edit I made was how I overlaid the words with the picture, so in the film the picture moves behind the words. This was achieved by cutting out the background of image I made with the title font and inserting it on top of the footage for a set amount of time. This is key because it makes my film look more professional and is a clean edit but also helps carry the transition between the darkness of the party and the light of the next day.

This effect is important to the film because in addition to using the filter (as i said above) I further blurred the image as well as made it a point of view shot. This is significant because in horror, point of view shots are important to make the audience feel like they’re part of the action and suspense. To further blur this shot I used an app called Touch Blur because I felt that even with the slight blur from the camera that I used in different shots it didn’t reflect the intoxication of the character and also gave away who the “stalker” was if you could see the face too clearly. This shot is very important because it makes the audience feel the suspense and wonder who the stalker really is and if the main character is guilty or not.

This shot is important to the film because I chose to do an extreme close up on the characters face. I did this because I wanted the audience to feel nervous and suspicious of this character, and the close up on the face is one of the techniques many horror and thriller movies do. This is because it shows the emotion of the character and the audience has to focus to read the characters facial expression.

This effect is interesting and was slightly complicated to achieve, but in my opinion is the most interesting shot in the film. To achieve this shot i took the same footage of the blurred point of view shot of the “stalker” yelling at the camera, un blurred it, put a black and white effect on it, turned the opacity down so it became slightly transparent, then overlaid it onto the shot of the character moving her eyes back and forth as if she was scared. I chose this shot because originally I wanted to put the screaming girl in her eyes at the end of the title sequence, but I decided to put it into the middle to add suspense and show the audience the character’s sudden clarity in the situation and the moment she understood she was to blame for the conflict. I also like this shot because of the extreme close up on the eyes (I enhanced the back image to make the eyes clearer and highlight the veins that made her look nervous.) These extreme close ups are very popular in horror and thriller films, but I think it was a new and different take on the typical suspense which I was going for, as I wanted to create a new, fresh piece of film that still conformed to the genre.

This shot is important because it highlights a key element of my film which was the use of “social media” and phones. I chose this because I wanted to be new and different and highlight upon one of the most influential inventions of the century which is the new way of communication and how it can change the genre of horror completely. This is not normal to most horror movies because it’s very new and upcoming, but it’s an important shot not only because it’s point of view but also because of the way I chose not to conform to the “typical” horror movies which use things such as house phones and doorbells ringing to create suspense, where as I chose to make the effects of the Iphone sound creepy.

*The Font and Style: These three images from my 9 grid highlight the font I used throughout my film. I chose this font because I think of it as very “industrial” and almost like text message font (which directly related to my plot line.) I chose the colors red and white for the titles because I felt they were bold colors and ones that would stand out. The red with the white obviously conforms to the genre norms of many horror movies such as Nightmare on Elm Street because they are very strong colors and contrast each other well. In the bottom image you can see the way I chose the titles to enter/exit the screen. I chose this specific effect because it reminded me of the words being “scrambled” in a way and I wanted to portray the confusion and misleading themes that are shown throughout my film. I also chose this theme specifically because I felt it didn’t distract too much from the film itself and also conformed to the “creepy” font of some horror/thriller movies, including the font “NEW LINE CINEMAS” is presented in at the top of the Se7en grid.

*The Story/Narrative: For the story and narrative I believe these four shots highlight the four key moments of the film and the story as a whole. I purposely made my film suspenseful and therefore started out the audience in the “middle of the story” — at the party. I hinted at what was going to happen next by having the character type her number into the phone and hand it back to a boy, but I purposely didn’t reveal the full story because I wanted to conform the the typical suspense that most horror movies have at the beginning (by keeping a “secret” from the viewer.)

Then i go on the the middle of the film which takes place mostly on the streets of Manhattan, this shot specifically a high angle shot while the character is confronting her friend. I chose this shot as part of my narrative because it’s an important moment in the narrative where the character begins to get clarity on her situation, but still the audience is in suspense because they don’t understand the full story. This is very typical of horror movies because the shot helps to give away the “helplessness” of the character subtly and shows the viewer that something is not completely right.

The next shot is of the text messages. I chose this shot because it’s important to the narrative in many ways, but mostly because the film revolves around the idea that a mystery “stalker” is texting her and getting closer to her. This shot was interesting to me because it’s the only one I chose to have the typing and texts pop up while the phone was one. I did this to build suspense and create an eerie feeling of waiting that the audience could experience. This also very typical of horror movies to hint at when a “jump” is going to come by using score along with a long cut, which is what I did.

The last shot I chose is the last filmed bit of the opening sequence, and I picked this because again it highlights one of the key themes in horror and thrillers which is leaving it as a cliff hanger. The behind shot of Poppy is also a point of view shot of the stalker, which makes the audience feel eerie while also building suspense, and since the shot fades as the hand is placed on the girls shoulder in the crowded train station the audience cannot clearly conclude who the killer is. This is very typical of the genre because they want to keep audience members interested and wanting more of the story.

*The Genre and Suggestions of it: Throughout the evaluation of each of the explanations I have added why each shot conforms or challenges the typical suggestions of the horror/thriller genre. Please see above for specific examples as they pertain to each shot in the 9 shot grid.

In this post I will highlight some of the changes I made from my first edit to the final edit. Although I won’t highlight all of the changes made, I’ve done my best to chose some of the most important and prevalent edits to my film.

CHANGE IN TITLES: For all of the titles in my film I’ve changed the font size to make it easier to read and to highlight the color without distracting the audience from the picture. I have also added more titles throughout the film to make it look more like an opening sequence.

2. ENDING THE FILM: For the first draft of my film I created an ending that made my film look more like a short film than a title sequence, so for the ending of my final film I didn’t show Poppy turning around because I wanted to leave the viewer in more suspense and conform more to the genre of horror by leaving the clip without her turning around, so the audience would, in theory, have to watch on to see what happens. At the end of my final edit I chose to put the white fade in for longer to emphasize the suspense.

3. THUMBNAIL: I changed the thumbnail on my initial rough edit to my final edit and added a background image of the “party scene” to create a stronger effect and give the viewer a sense of the movie while still showing the title and making it look a bit more professional.

4. SOUND: I made very significant edits to the sound of my film and the editing and fading that went into it. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to the timeline of my first draft, but here are some of the shot of my key framing of my sound design in my final draft. As you can see from my final film, I changed the music from “Sweet Success” (which was mentioned in my sound plan) to “Plague of Fairness Drums”. This change is a large one because the change of music edited the feel of the entire movie and created a sense of genre convention and tied my film to other horror movie feels through the eerie music. To make my film more professional in regards to sound, I created a sound design which included Foley, Score, Sound effects and Atmos effects. While designing this I worked to key frame and fade the sounds in and out to make them sound more natural. I had to learn how to transition sounds, which can be seen in the photos where I overlay and fade different sections of the sound. Throughout the film you can also hear that I changed the volume to make the sounds less intense and more realistic.